3 Things to Do Before Choosing B2B Ecommerce Solution

Interested in using b2b ecommerce platform? Here are top 3 things you need to do before choosing b2b ecommerce solution!

Let’s face it – the future of ecommerce is here and you need to accept it and create your own business strategy. If you are already considering using b2b ecommerce platform, that’s great as you are already one step further.

One of the most challenging parts is choosing an ecommerce platform. The b2b ecommerce platform is a very important investment, when it comes to both time and money. The platform comes with great competitive benefits for distributors, manufacturers, and brands.

Making the wrong platform decision may have some serious consequences over your business and brand. It is better if you invest time to document your needs, compare platforms and prices, understand how your business needs to evolve and then start the process of choosing an ecommerce platform.

There are 3 essential things you need to do before choosing b2b ecommerce solution:

Understand your drivers – More than 80% of business executives are buying products and services online. Businesses are feeling customer and market pressure to invest in b2b e commerce because they want to place orders from their mobile devices, participate in many-to-many marketplaces, empower the sales force, and shift procurement to the web from EDI. These are some of the common drivers of b2b ecommerce.

Do a realistic self-assessment – If your business is not ready to accept ecommerce, it does not matter how well you know why you need a solution as you won’t have the resources, the support or the strategic positioning to get the job done. You need to ask yourself – what are your current capabilities? Do you understand the current processes? If you have got everything under control, that’s great! But, keep in mind that if e-commerce is not central to your company’s overall strategy, you automatically increase the chance of failure.

Answer a few questions – There are a few questions you need to ask yourself – Do you understand and accept the overall strategy of your company? Have you accesses your current resources? Have you documented your system requirements? Have you defined your ecommerce opportunity? Do you have an objective platform selection process?

Now that you know these 3 things, you can choose a b2b ecommerce solution that is suitable for your business and your business needs and prepare for growth!